How are hurricanes named?

The World Meteorological Organization maintains lists of names for tropical storms in each ocean basin. For the Atlantic there are six lists that rotate, so the 2025 list is reused in 2031. Names alternate between male and female, a practice started in 1979; before that, from 1953, only female names were used. Names beginning with Q, U, X, Y and Z are skipped because there are too few suitable ones. When a storm is especially deadly or costly, such as Katrina in 2005 or Ian in 2022, its name is retired and replaced. If a season runs out of names, a supplemental list is now used instead of the Greek alphabet, which was dropped after 2020.